A Naturalistic Study of Obsessive-compulsive Disorder: A Retrospective Chart Review

The electronic case records were retrieved for patients with a primary diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and who had visited the clinic during a specified period (n = 125). The mean and standard deviation (SD) of the age of the patients were 36 13.5 years, the duration of illness was 8.6 7.3 years, and the follow-up period was 45.5 41.9 months. The age of onset of the illness was in the late 20s. Comorbid diagnosis with OCD was seen in 41% cases-bipolar disorder (BD) 28% and schizophrenia = 13%. A family history of a psychiatric illness was present in nearly one-third of the cases. Subjectively, outcome of "Normal" or "Better" was seen in 41% cases of pure OCD, 19% of OCD + BD, and 5% in OCD + schizophrenia. Clinical presentations of cases are also discussed. The patient's behavior in attending the clinic showed that initially the patients visit the clinic more frequently when the illness is severe, but later they come for consultation whenever there were some problems, but they continue taking medicines.